GIJoe: From The Depths
by Tower of Babel
Summary: While transporting a highly sensitive laser to an underwater COBRA base, a Cobra diver learns the folly of his ways when his unit is attacked by a den of hungry sharks. Falcon, and an original character, Drake Luxen. COMPLETE.
1. From The Depths Part 1

****

From The Depths - Part 1

****

[ This is one of my very first G.I.Joe stories and it has taken me several months (close to a year) to get it to this level of development. With the support of readers like you providing me with up-lifting comments, I felt it was time to rework this story and finally publish it for you to read. So without further ado, enjoy this two-part installment called FROM THE DEPTHS - an original story within the G.I.Joe universe that includes an original character created by me. ] 

"ETA is fifteen minutes to base, sir," his second in command reported.

Drake Luxen nodded but provided no verbal communication to his second because there was no need. And besides, he had other things on his mind, namely completing this mission. G.I.Joe was practicing land-to-sea operations overhead and he was on the lookout for an enemy attack if one was coming, but knowing his enemy, he suspected nothing less. Since being promoted to commander of an underwater unit of Undertow he had successfully completed every mission he was given despite occasional interference by G.I.Joe and he intended to keep his track record at one hundred percent. He wanted this mission to go precisely according to plan.

At present he was in command of transporting a highly sophisticated and sensitive particle laser to a secret COBRA underwater base two hundred kilometres off the coast of Bimini, Florida. Transport of the laser started under the cover of darkness at 0200 hours and they were given a specific route to follow straight to the base. So far they hadn't hit any trouble, and Drake Luxen was pleased with how the mission was proceeding. Everything was going according to plan.

He briefly glanced down at his watch and confirmed the time stated by his second, and smiled. Indeed, they were a good fifteen minutes to completing the mission, but remarkably they were ahead of schedule. Cobra Commander will be pleased, he thought. Turning his glance, he examined his Undertow unit swimming a close ten meters behind him with the particle laser in tow. And he never thought he would be so pleased to be a part of COBRA. Precision and strong leadership brought success. COBRA's philosophy was if only the United States was as efficient as the men and women of COBRA were, then perhaps wars would be avoided through collective ambition rather than fought with hopeless futility and the loss of good soldiers. Luxen believed in that philosophy, however, there was one snag: COBRA didn't want to share the world, they wanted total unquestionable rule, and that's where the entire philosophy broke down.

As Drake Luxen swam ahead of his unit he suddenly felt an unusual vibration in the water and stopped in his tracks. At first he thought it might have been a large school of fish swimming very close to where he was and as the water was so dark and murky at this time of night that wouldn't be out of the realm of plausibility. But something else bothered him about the vibration. When he was a boy he loved the water and fell in love with its clandestine world. And almost immediately felt a certain unexplained connection with the ocean, one he couldn't explain. He had the ability to sense vibrations in the water similar to that of a shark's sonar if some invertebrate swam into its territory. He used this underwater clairvoyance as a deep-sea diver while in the United States Navy, but told no one. Now with COBRA he used his gift to the fullest extent. And something about this vibration made him nervous. It was a large vibration, and very directed. Through years of developing his gift he had learned to distinguish different vibrations in the water from all forms of underwater life. Fish have their own specific vibration pattern and larger creatures such as sharks and whales have another. However this vibration was not associated with a creature from the depths. He drew only one conclusion.

"Lieutenant, prepare the troops, we have company," Luxen told his second in command.

His second swam to the others and told them an attack was imminent and to prepare. Drake Luxen could hear his second's directives clearly from the communication device inside his scuba mask that each Undertow had. He didn't know who the enemy was, but it didn't take long for him to find out as a unit of divers swam into sight. And on the side of one of their water sleds was a painted G.I.Joe symbol. "Undertow unit, evasive manoeuvres. Defend the laser, attack the Joes." Luxen shouted out orders. And his unit responded with an offensive attack.

G.I.Joe returned fire.

Soon the two parties clashed in battle, and an ambitious Joe attacked Luxen with a knife, lunging at him from a water sled with purpose. The Joe used his knife to slice through the water with precision, but Luxen was able to avoid the man's attack by falling back on years of training and defensive techniques that he had learned though countless training exercises with COBRA. The Joe slashed at Luxen again and again Luxen avoided the man's attack, and soon the fight came a stand still as neither the Joe nor he could get the better of the other. 

Suddenly a torpedo was fired from a COBRA water sled and the explosion rocked the area around them as it destroyed a G.I.Joe water sled. An eddie current from the explosion pushed the Joe off balance and Luxen was able to get the advantage. Luxen grabbed the Joe's left wrist and incapacitated the man's knife hand. The Joe struggled to free his hand as Luxen held on tightly but the man was unsuccessful in his attempt. Luxen then took his own knife and sliced through the water cutting the man's wetsuit at his chest. Bubbles of excess oxygen use emerged from the Joe's scuba mask and the man grabbed his chest as streams of blood started to exit out of the wound. Luxen then took hold of the Joe's breathing tube and cut it with his knife.

The Joe's breathing tube whipped around in sporadic movement and the man tried to restore his oxygen intake as Luxen stood back and watched the futile attempt. After thirty seconds the Joe began to slow down as his oxygen ran out. Soon after, the Joe took one last look at Luxen and keeled over as he lost consciousness. Luxen treaded water and stared at the Joe as the man floated aimlessly slowly becoming buoyant. He had never killed anyone before, even in his years with the United States Navy. But then of course he was with research and development and not with a special elite unit like Marines or S.E.A.L.S. 

He was a member of COBRA, but he was cold-hearted and quickly took a breath from his scuba mask, then gave his mask to the unconscious Joe. Seemingly Luxen thought he had actually killed the man, but after fifteen seconds or so the Joe regained conscious and started to breath again. The Joe looked up at Luxen puzzled and Luxen nodded with acknowledgment. The Joe gave him the same nod. They exchanged the mask so Luxen could have some oxygen. 

"I'm not a killer," Luxen started to explain, "just a man doing his job."

The mask was exchanged again and the Joe took a couple of breath. "So am I." And the Joe produced a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Luxen around the right wrist. "You're under arrest," he said. Luxen gave the Joe a perplexed stare and the Joe then lead Luxen to his water sled where the Joe collected extra scuba gear stored in the aft compartment for emergencies. Luxen was given back his own mask as the Joe slid on his new scuba mask and oxygen tank.

"You may have me dead-to-rights, Joe, but you'll never attain the particle laser. As we speak it's on its way towed by two of my Undertow. It pays to prepare for an attack in advance."

"We'll see." The Joe took Luxen and handcuffed his other wrist. "Whether the laser escapes us or not, the fact of the matter is you're not going anywhere. So where is that laser headed?"

"I'm not telling you anything, Joe. Find the laser on your own. You were smart enough to find my unit within this murky soup, so put those same surveillance techniques into similar practise," Luxen blandly said. "By the way, how did you find my unit? We were well out of range of any sonar equipment and our depth was deep enough to mask our silhouettes."

"A fisherman was taking a late night walk at around 0200 along the Bimini coast shoreline and spotted some suspicious activity, divers moving a large cylinder into the water, he thus informed the authorities and they in turn informed us when they suspected it might be COBRA."

"You guys really move fast."

"When it comes to COBRA, we take no chances," the Joe said. "And since we suspected that you were transporting the particle laser, we ceased our land-to-sea night operations and came down here. And as we speak, your underwater base is under attack by unified forces. So no matter how you look at it, you've lost. So tell me, where is that laser?"

"The sonar device should tell you, it's attached to my belt," Luxen said.

The Joe plucked the sonar device off Luxen's belt and read the readings. "Present position has it less than a kilometre west of here. Looks like your boys don't know that the underwater base is under attack and are heading straight for it." The Joe smiled at Luxen. "Game over, you've lost."

Luxen sighed. "My wife is gonna kill me," he said.

"Well, you should've thought of that before joining COBRA," the Joe said almost pleased.

Suddenly both men heard a horrible, blood-curdling scream from inside their scuba masks; it came from their communication devices. A second scream just as horrific as the first then followed seconds later, each scream clearly from two distinct individuals. 

"What on earth?" Luxen said.

"Wetsuit, this is Falcon, come in," the Joe said. "Did you catch that? What was that?"

"Looks like we stumbled into a school of hungry sharks at dinnertime and presently they're enjoying a two course meal of COBRA-a-la-mode," Wetsuit replied. "They just attacked two Undertow and ripped them to shreds. We can't get near the particle laser; there are just too many sharks. Get your butt over here and bring your shark repellent. Where are you?"

"Not far," Falcon said. "I captured the commander of---"

"Shoot it, shoot it." Wetsuit started to say, but then the transmission abruptly ended.

"Wetsuit, come in. Wetsuit, come in." Falcon looked at Luxen. "My friends are in trouble."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Luxen blatantly said.

"You're gonna help me or I'll leave you here handcuffed," Falcon said.

"I rather stay here than make my way into the lions den, they're aren't any sharks here." But Luxen spoke too soon as a shark passed through the water sled's headlights about two meters in front of them. "Don't make any sudden moves, a sharks visual acuity is based on movement. It can't see you of you don't make a noise."

"Then shut-up or it'll hear you," Falcon said.

"Sharks can't hear," Luxen said. "They hunt their prey by using sonar in the water. Just relax and don't panic. As long as you don't make a move it won't attack." Suddenly Luxen felt a speedy vibration from behind him and turned around, quickly ducking as a shark attacked where his head was two seconds earlier. "What the hell? It must be the air bubbles that are disturbing the water and causing eddie variances. We're not safe. We hafta get out of here."

Falcon mounted the water sled. "Get on," he said. And once Luxen was on the sled behind him, the vehicle sped off as fast as the thing could take them. However, in water, sharks had the advantage, and the sled wasn't fast enough to outrun the animal. But just before the shark overtook them, Falcon pulled hard right and out-flanked the man-killer.

"If my hands were only free I could shoot the shark," Luxen said.

"Uh-huh. I'm not giving you a weapon."

"What's more important, giving me a weapon or escaping with your life? Sharks have no mercy. They don't care if you're fighting on the side of good or evil. If they think you'll be a tasty snack, they will eat you. Sharks have no known predators so they're not afraid of anything or anyone. Giving me a weapon might just save our lives. I don't intend to be eaten."

"Alright. There's a laser customized for underwater use in the holster on my right thigh, grab it."

Luxen shifted to the right and attempted to get the laser with handcuffed hands but the speed currents almost threw him off the water sled and he grabbed Falcon again. "No go, my hands are cuffed." Luxen looked forward and saw a shark coming straight at them. "Look out!" he shouted.

Falcon saw the shark at the last second and bumped it as he shifted to the left. Luxen was thrown off the water sled, but managed to grab Falcon's laser before he did. He then fired at the shark as it came near. With his clairvoyant gift he knew seconds before the shark would attack and fired at it before it got within striking distance. Falcon came back for him and fired the water sled's lasers at the shark scaring it off. With a brief moment to spare Falcon carefully aimed a pistol at Luxen's handcuffs and shot the metal restraint between them. Luxen was free. But seconds later the same shark returned and charged Falcon. It bit into his oxygen tank with its sharp teeth and pulled him off the water sled, ripping him through the water.

To be continued…


	2. From The Depths Part 2

****

Hidden Depths

__

I enjoyed writing "From The Depths" so much that I thought I would add a third part, a part I left out of the original because I thought it didn't fit the flow of the story properly. The idea was there, but I just couldn't insert it with any degree of appropriateness. For those who were curious what happens inside the Cobra underwater base while the events described in the story take place you'll want to read this. It continues the story and it sets up for further chapters to be added at my discretion. I call this chapter "Hidden Depths" because it's an off-shoot of the story and doesn't follow the flow of the original. Enjoy, and please R&R.

Atlantis. Ancient Greek lore described the city as a utopia where the inhabitants lived in perfect harmony. Then one fateful day it was swallowed up by the sea, never to be seen again. This was the angle COBRA was playing for. . . A hidden city, swallowed by the depths of the sea, not seen. A self-contained city surrounded by an atmospheric bio-dome, and inside was COBRA operations, several hundred miles off the Bimini, Florida coast.

Cobra Commander was waiting for the arrival of a weapon. A unit of Untertow were transporting it from one of Dr. Mindbender's labs and the plan was to use a pedestrian approach to bring it here. In command of the unit was a man who had never failed him, a man named Luxen, who always brought results and not excuses. He had put the man in command of all his Undertow unit a little more than a year ago when he came up for review, his record was flawless, so he promoted Luxen and put him in charge of all his underwater forces; Undertow, Eels, Hydro-Viper, etc. The man never failed.

When they were in range Luxen opened up a communication line with Atlantis, the COBRA underwater city, and reported their progress. He told Cobra Commander they were fifteen minutes ahead of schedule and they would be there within the hour. This pleased Cobra Commander greatly, and he closed the line with a smile on his face, but of course no one would know he was smiling because no one could see his face behind his battle armour helmet. But he was happy, and he sat down on his rotating throne chair that was crafted like a Cobra snake about to strike and watched the operations room, consoles and TV monitors monitored by his men.

"Get me Destro, now," he told one Techno-Viper at his station. The Viper replied with a "Yes sir" and immediately opened up a com-line with Destro's Trans-Carpathian Castle, Scotland. A holographic display of an Iron Grenadier's face appeared in the middle of the room. Projection units in every corner of the room generated the image. The Iron Grenadier's mask covered face was a haunting sight to anyone not familiar with it, looking like some sort of demon. The man wore a black and blood red mask. "Where is Destro, soldier?" he addressed the floating head apparition.

"He's indisposed at the moment, Cobra Commander, and does not wish to be disturbed," the Iron Grenadier said, in a voice that Cobra Commander took offence to. If he was happy beforehand he was angry now, and expressed it with a snarl.

"Don't you dare take that tone with me, trooper!" Cobra Commander said with such displeasure. "I want to speak with Destro now! And no excuses. Destro will here about your rudeness to me. I will not be spoken to in this manner."

"I apologise if I sounded impolite, Cobra Commander," the Grenadier said sincerely. "But my orders stand. He and the Baroness are . . ." The Iron Grenadier almost sounded embarrassed.

"How dare they have sex on my time!" The whole room went silent as they heard that. "I don't care if they are, I want to speak with Destro immediately, you understand? IMMEDIATELY!"

The Grenadier jumped when he heard Cobra Commander shout IMMEDIATELY and stuttered "Y-yes, Cobra Commander. I'll relay the message to him and have him contact you as soon as possible."

Then the line when dead and the holographic image disengaged. Cobra Commander clenched his fists together in a bout of anger he kept silent. If he were talking to the man face to face, he would have shot the man for his insolence. He had to keep up a pretence of authority to keep his troops faith. He had to demonstrate his power when someone was insubordinate to him. But he couldn't punish that Iron Grenadier, Destro would have to do it. And yet since he was following Destro's orders the man would not get punished. He felt like hitting something. The Iron Grenadier had got him upset.

""Inform me immediately when Destro makes contact," he said to a tech-officer, and left the room. He stomped out and made his way to a private training room set up specifically for him to vent his anger. When he designed this place he inserted it in as a last minute thing because he felt he needed one. With all the stress this job brought a place like this was a good thing, like his own private reckroom. It had workout equipment, a punching bag, an entertainment centre, and a multitude of other things to entertain him, including a library of World War Two documentaries, for which he studied and used for COBRA's needs, but he didn't come in here to watch TV, he was angry and annoyed, and wanted to vent his anger. He wanted to hit something and the punching bag was the perfect target.

He shut the door and locked it. Then he disengaged the security device in his helmet, took it off, and threw it across the room. It bounced on the matte-covered floor and hit the back wall. Standing there, his face naked, he cursed the heavens, and waved his fists in the air. "Why am I always surrounded by fools?" he shouted into the sound-proof room. "A man of my statue shouldn't have to bark orders and have them questioned. My word is gold, and I am their god. They should obey me without question!" He went over to the punching bag that hung on a chain from the roof and started punching it hard like a boxer. Then he changed up and went into a kick-boxer routine, that he learned from Big Boa.

After he finished with the bag, his armour removed, he engaged in a martial arts rhythm exercise that he picked up from Storm Shadow, now again a loyal ally due to the Brainwave Scanner.

It was an hour later when he realised the time. He had been venting his frustration for an hour and Destro had still not contacted him. He sweated profusely and he felt a little better from the workout. He had to have his own private workout chamber. It would be improper for him to workout with his troops. He had to keep up his muscle tone and his authority. He couldn't look weak in front of his men. He couldn't pull a Richard M. Nixon.

He grabbed a towel from a locker up against a wall and wiped the sweat from his face. He was dressed in a pair of black shorts and then took a shower before gearing back inside his armour. Leaving the room he went to the armoury. Here he entered the shooting range and several of his men were practicing their aim. Immediately the Sergeant of the watch shouted, "Commander on deck!" And Cobra Commander told them to continue on. He watched them for several minutes and determined the majority of them were awful. This made him displeased, and he went over to one of them and tapped him on the shoulder. The young officer, a blonde-haired man, jumped startled when he turned and saw Cobra Commander.

"Your aim is off, trooper," Cobra Commander took the man's laser and showed him how to hold the gun properly. "Your hands should be balanced for proper aim. One hand on the trigger and the other cupping the underbelly, look through your target sensor, aim, and shoot." He fired at the target 100 yards away. The laser blast penetrated the outer dot of the target. Cobra Commander looked up stunned. He felt the weapon in his hand, and it felt unbalanced. He knew this because he used to be in the military and knew such things. "Weapons officer," he called. A man in a black Cobra uniform came, and saluted him. "Replace this laser, it's faulty." "Yes sir, " the officer replied, and brought him a fresh laser pistol. "Ah yes," Cobra Commander expressed pleased. "The balance feels better." He took aim at the target and fired. This time he hit it centre dot. "Take aim again, trooper, and aim to kill!" The trooper nodded. He took aim and fired, and he too hit the centre dot right beside Cobra Commander's. "Excellent! Well done!" The trooper smiled pleased that he had preformed to his commander-in-chief's expectations.

Cobra Commander then watched the rest of the shooting gallery for another thirty minutes because he enjoyed it. He rarely enjoyed anything in life, but when it came to firearms and an incentive to kill he loved diving into a welcome pleasure.

After the shooting gallery he made his way to the training facilities where more of his troopers were exercising demons in the form of their bodies in a gymnasium sized room surrounded by window pane and a beautiful view of the outside underwater world. Storm Shadow was deep into teaching these wannabe ninjas the art of jiujutsu, which he secretly admired. Storm Shadow came from a long-line of incredible warriors and if he could pass on his knowledge to COBRA not only will the Arashikage Clan live on, but so will the skills and teachings thereof. Cobra Commander had not fully entered the room, and returned a slight bow to Storm Shadow when Storm Shadow gave him one sensing his presence. Cobra Commander was watching from the back of the room and his troops had their backs to him so he decided not to disturb them and left.

He then took an elevator down to the 5th level to visit the school wing. His intention with the school wing was to broaden his troops minds, to make them smarter on the battlefield. A sharp mind is a victory waiting to happen, he thought. Walking down a long corridor he saw and heard his troops engaged in intelligent and philosophical debate as he passed each door to a classroom.

When he was a kid, he was self-taught by his mother, home-school, and didn't have the education these troops were getting now. He considered them lucky because he knew how hard it was going back to school as an adult. When he went to college to get his bachelor's degree in mechanical science as he worked as a used car salesman he was glad he did because the knowledge he obtained then helped him now. It helped him design this underwater dome, and build COBRA back up to its present glory, under his command.

The dome doubled as a training centre as well as a base of operations, and the particle laser was being transported here and was making a pit stop before it went on to another location. Dr. Mindbender was waiting for it to implement it into one of COBRA's schemes. Cobra Commander had big plans for it. It would be used for ransom. If the Royal Family didn't pay him 1 billion pounds he'd destroy Buckingham Palace, the centre of the British monarchy. But even if they did pay he'd still destroy it because that's the kind of man he was, and he'd make more money in the chaos.

He crossed the length of the school wing and entered the elevator on the other side and just at the moment the doors closed the com-link on his arm band beeped. He received a communication from a tech-officer informing him that Destro had replied to his message. Cobra Commander cared less about Destro now and told the tech-officer that he would return the communication at his convenience. That's what it meant to have power, he thought, and closed the com-link frequency as the elevator made its way up to its designated location. Cobra Commander smirked smug. "I love my job!" he said.

After an hour of wandering the levels which was his prerogative as commander-in-chief of COBRA, the largest terrorist organization in the world, he finally made his way back up to the operations room, and told a Techno-Viper to establish two-way communication with Destro. The Viper did so, and Destro's Beryllium steel mask projected in a holographic image in the centre of the room. Cobra Commander eased back in his throne calmly, a far cry than a few hours before. "You wanted to speak with me, Commander?" Destro addressed him.

"I want to change the world, Destro, and you're going to help me," he said. "The particle laser is enroute to Atlantis, then it will travel to Dr. Mindbender's facility in the Alaska by Night Raven."

"And you're telling me this. . .why? This is your operation, not mine!"

"Don't get snippet with me, Destro. I'm your commander-in-chief, and you will give me the respect so issued to a man of my position."

"Forgive me, Commander. What are your orders?"

"That's better," he said calmly. "I want your A.S.P. forces to join the Night Raven in mid-flight and escort it to its destination. I want the particle laser to arrive safely. Nothing will stop its delivery."

"As you command, Commander--"

Suddenly Destro was interrupted by a Techno-Viper, monitoring a console screen. "Cobra Commander, the particle laser is within visual range, but sensors indicate a large enemy fighting force is homing in on them."

Cobra Commander jumped from his chair and raced to the sonar station where the Techno-Viper was stationed. He snarled. "The fools!" he hissed. "G.I.Joe is conducting war games above. The Undertow unit must have been detected by sonar radar by the mechanic substance in the laser casing. I specifically told the Cobra labs to encase it in a hard polymer plastic so it would not be detected. If our pings can detect the laser, so can G.I.Joe's. Have they detected Atlantis?"

"No sir," the Viper said assured. "Atlantis has been undetected. The sonar jamming device is fully operational. We are secure."

"Excellent! But to be on the safe side, shutdown all non-essential systems. And I want that particle laser in my procession."

"Commander. . ."

"What?!" He replied irritated.

"I'm hearing screams. . . from our men?" Cobra Commander looked at the Techno-Viper as the man put a hand to his ear-piece, listening to what he had reported. He then confirmed it.

"Are they being attacked? Rotate the cameras. I want to see."

The Techno-Viper moved a lever on the console and activated the view screen making visual contact outside Atlantis. The water was dark and murky at this depth, but with enhanced sensors he was able to establish a clear picture of what was happening. He put the screams on speaker so Cobra Commander could listen. Cobra Commander was taken back shocked by the blood-curdling screams and the blood that filled the water as sharks attacked his men. As the camera rotated it captured a feeding frenzy on one Undertow as the sharks ripped him apart in seconds. Cobra Commander had never seen some carnage, and in a sick, twisted way, he liked it, but not when it came to the safety of the particle laser. He had a thought to send out additional forces to retrieve the laser but then decided against it because that would risk compromising Atlantis's location, and this base cost him a fortune to build.

"Why are they attacking them? My men are no threat."

"Sharks are very territorial, Cobra Commander," the Techno-Viper said. "We had some altercations when constructing this base. The builders managed to keep them at bay with strong shark repellent, which the Undertow unit are carrying, but when sharks are hungry, nothing can keep them at bay. When building Atlantis we disturbed the food sources in this area. I'm guessing the sharks are fighting back."

"How do you know so much about sharks, Viper?" he asked.

"Commander Luxen informed me," the Techno-Viper said. "He had reservations about this project from the very beginning, but he never discussed them with anyone but a few. Before joining Cobra he was an oceanographer, and was in the military for a short time as a diver, and studied the eating patterns of sharks. I'm familiar with his dossier because it's customary to read over the personal records of anyone involved in a mission for security purposes."

"Yes, correct," he agreed. "And since we scared their food away, they're eating us?" Cobra Commander watched his men get eaten by the sharks and the Joes assisting them in fighting them off. He told the Techno-Viper to vacant his seat and Cobra Commander rotated the camera to a spot where two men were alone from the others and firing off their water lasers until they went dry. When their lasers went dry, like the tide at sunset washing over the rocks of the shore, a shark swooped in and bit one of them in half, leaving the other man alone to later have his head ripped off by another shark. Cobra Commander felt sick to his stomach as he washed his men get eaten by these sharks, and then watched the events unfold as his laser became the weapon of choice to destroy them! Luxen and a Joe detonated the laser inside the sharks den that housed hundreds of sharks a few kilometres away.

His hopes for conquest were shattered and the man who had never failed him failed him miserably. "Luxen, you're a dead man!" he said with such an up-bring of fury that he finally let loose his anger publicly and smashed the console he was sitting at with two closed fists. The monitor went static, and he saw no more.


	3. From The Depths Part 3

****

From The Depths - Part 2

[ This is one of my very first G.I.Joe stories and it has taken me several months (close to a year) to get it to this level of development. With the support of readers like you providing me with up-lifting comments, I felt it was time to rework this story and finally publish it for you to read. So without further ado, enjoy this two-part installment called FROM THE DEPTHS - an original story within the G.I.Joe universe that includes an original character created by me. ]

_________________________________________________________________

Recap of Part 1:

**In part one: Drake Luxen, a diver working for COBRA, was charged with transporting a particle laser to an secret base several miles off Bimini, Florida when G.I.Joe attacked his Undertow unit and interfered with the mission. During a skirmish with Falcon, Drake Luxen almost killed him when he cut Falcon's oxygen intake. Not wanting the Joe's death on his hands he saved Falcon but while doing so was captured. Being told his mission was a failure and that the underwater base was under attack by unified forces Drake Luxen told Falcon where the particle laser could be found, being lead away from G.I.Joe by two of his Undertow divers. Thinking that the fight was over, a horrific scream then shattered the silence as both COBRA and G.I.Joe discovered that they had wandered into an area that had a shark's den and that the two Undertows who were carrying the particle laser had just been eaten. Knowing that the odds were against him Drake Luxen joined forces with Falcon and together they are making their way to Falcon's G.I.Joe comrades. As we tune in, Falcon has just been taken by a shark and Luxen watches in horror as the man he saved earlier might just die after all.**

_________________________________________________________________

"Falcon!" Luxen screamed as he watched the shark sink its massive jaws deep into Falcon's oxygen tank. Luxen mounted the water sled and raced after the shark. He caught up to Falcon moments later after the shark had let go of him probably unsatisfied that it had bitten metal instead of flesh. Falcon was treading water when Luxen reached him. Air bubbles slowly ejected themselves from the back of Falcon's oxygen tank, but this time there was not a spare on the sled. "Falcon, are you alright?" Luxen asked with sincere concern.

"Yeah, but damn thing got my oxygen tank. I have five minutes left of oxygen according to the indicator."

"Hop on, I'll make a b-line towards the surface," Luxen said.

"No," Falcon said. "We have to save my friends, we can't leave without them."

"They're surrounded by sharks, and they're probably already dead. If you wanna risk your life for a futile pursuit be my guest, but leave me out of it."

"Fine. Give me back my laser then."

"But I'll be defenceless?"

"See the irony? As you said, sharks are merciless, and my friends are in trouble. Stay here if you want and keep the damn laser, but I'm gonna try to save my friends."

Luxen sighed guilty. "Man, I know I'm going to regret this," Luxen said, and hopped on the water sled behind Falcon and they sped off. Luxen fired at sharks as they made their way to where the action was and where Falcon's comrades-in-arms were. When they reached ground zero Falcon called out to Wetsuit, and surprisingly enough the earlier scare turned out to be just that. A shark had sideswiped Wetsuit and temporarily disabled his communication device, but he managed to get it working again.

Falcon pulled up beside Wetsuit. "Who's this?" Wetsuit asked of Luxen.

Falcon turned to Luxen. "An ally," Luxen said before Falcon could say anything, and Falcon gave him a thin smile. Luxen fired at a shark that approached and the animal turned away as the blast hit it in the side. "This has to end soon or we will all die. According to your navigational computer we're over a shark den. There are literally thousands of families of sharks down there. A shark's den is a gigantic hole in the bottom of the ocean where schools of sharks live. And I don't mean a large family. I mean a swarm; thousands of sharks all with the same goal in mind. And these are Great White sharks, too, the most deadilest sharks in the known world. This species is the worse to tangle with because they're highly unpredictable and unusually intelligent. But what I would like to know is how my unit managed to stray so far off-course? We specifically navigated a course around this area."

"Leave it to COBRA equipment to provide false readings," Falcon said. "COBRA doesn't care where they get their equipment from as long as it's cheap and serves a notable purpose for a time." Suddenly Falcon started to gasp as his oxygen started to run out. Luxen gave him his mask for a moment. Falcon took off the oxygen tank and was about to let it drop when Luxen waved no. Falcon gave the mask back to Luxen and Luxen told him what he had in mind.

Falcon took the mask again. "Do you think it'll work?" Falcon expressed concerns with the plan. "This isn't the movies, you know. Nowadays everything is done with models and special effects."

But Luxen gave Falcon a confident smile, smiled, and took the almost empty oxygen tank and attached an explosive to it, programming a detonator. Then with either iron-guts or extreme stupidity Luxen swam into open water with the tank in his arms and hoped to hell Falcon was watching his back for any ambitious sharks that felt like attacking him.

Without scuba gear to weight him down he had more fluent of movement, and with years of practise he had the ability to hold his breath for a little more than two minutes. But he doubted he would need that long for his plan to reach fruition. A shark spotted him and then turned towards him, and swam at him like a bat out of hell with its jaws wide open. The situation reminded Luxen of a movie about a shark with a thirst for human flesh and blood, but he wasn't afraid. He had never been afraid of the ocean or any creature that lied there in. 

Smiling confidently, he remained where he was until the shark got within arms length, then he tossed up the oxygen tank and within an inch pulled his hands down away from the sharks jaws as it swam over him; the shark took the tank in its mouth. Aiming his laser at the tank he fired, but missed. He frowned; he was never the best marksman. He fired again and hit the tank and because of the explosive nature of the highly voltaire mixture of nitrogen and oxygen it exploded ripping the shark to pieces. It was movie magic at its best, but this was no movie.

Luxen shouted with mental enthusiasm throwing his arms above him and all the sharks started devouring their brethren rather than attacking humans. But the feeding frenzy didn't last long as the others ate the shark with super speed. Luxen swam back over to the water sled and took a breath from the oxygen mask that Falcon had.

"Okay, that was useless," said Luxen. "I thought that would distract the sharks long enough to get your people out of here, guess I was wrong. Besides it wasn't that big of a shark."

"Now what?" Wetsuit said.

"We need a bigger explosion or rather to be technically correct a bigger implosion."

The difference between an explosion and an implosion is that when an explosion happens there is an outward burst of explosive energy that catapults projectiles in subsequent directions while an implosion draws inwards and collapses on itself similar to a black hole in space. But with enough explosive energy, each one can be just as deadly as the other.

Falcon wanted to talk and Luxen gave him the mask. "But where are we gonna get that much explosive -- sorry, implosive energy from?"

"The particle laser," Luxen said when he got the mask back. "It has enough energy to wipe out a small town, and that's what COBRA was going to use it for if a ransom wasn't paid." Luxen frowned. "I'm not a hateful man, please understand that. I don't care for COBRA or its plans to conquer the world. I joined COBRA to pay the bills. I have a wife and two sons to support."

"There are better ways to earn an income," Wetsuit said, as he fired at a shark.

"I know, but I was desperate. After the US Navy shut down the research project my team and I were working on, they said I could either take a desk job or leave the service. Rather than take a desk job, I left the service and tried to live a civilian life. But after a while and many jobs later a man came to me and gave me an offer I couldn't refuse, namely to join COBRA as a diver. I joined and two years later rose the ranks to become a leader of an Undertow unit, this one. We never failed a mission until now. My moniker is Undertow, but my friends call my Drake Luxen."

Falcon waved for the mask and Luxen gave it to him. "All pleasantries aside, Drake Luxen - nice to meet you," Falcon said, "but what is your plan to get us out of this mess?"

"I'll set the detonation device on the laser capsule - it has one for just this situation, if ever we were ever captured by G.I.Joe; it's a standard practise - and drive it into the sharks den," Luxen said when he got the mask back. "And when it blows it will take out hundreds of sharks distracting the others so you and your comrades can escape the area."

Falcon gave Luxen a look of disbelief. Falcon was given the mask back. "No way, Drake, you're not sacrificing yourself for us, we'll find another way. We'll get you home to your wife and kids."

Falcon gave the mask back to Luxen after a few more breaths, and Luxen said, "There's no other way, this is the only course of action I can think of."

Falcon took Drake by the shoulder and said after he got the mask back, "I'm all good with the plan, but you're not gonna sacrificing yourself for us and that's final. I'll get you to the laser capsule - then you set the denotation sequence and set the capsule's sled to allow itself to move under its own momentum into the shark's den. That's the plan. No argument."

Luxen produced a look of "But--"

Wetsuit said, "If that's the plan, then you better do it quick or we're all gonna be fish bait. I'll tell the others."

"Let's do it," Falcon said, and he and Luxen got on the water sled and made their way to the laser capsule. Remarkably they encountered little resistance on their way to the capsule and Luxen opened the control panel to the laser capsule and started programming the detonation sequence while Falcon shot away sharks. Falcon then noticed how low his laser was on energy and said, "Better hurry up, Drake, my laser is almost drained."

Luxen switched on the manoeuvrability jets of the laser capsule and sent it down towards the shark's den, and then he returned to the water sled where Falcon was. He took a few breaths from the mask, and then started to say, "All set, all we need now is to make some distance--" before a huge shark came out of nowhere and used its massive jaws to slice open the back of Luxen's wetsuit as it passed. Luxen screamed in pain and blood started to stream out of the large rips in his back. Luxen's vision blurred as he looked at Falcon for help. "Go, get out of here," he said.

Falcon shook his head as he helped Luxen back up onto the water sled. Luxen hung on as Falcon sped as fast as he could forwards and then did a hard 180-degree turn and shot through the blood that filled the water in front of them. Luxen remained conscious because he knew he had too. His back felt like it was on fire, but the worse thing he could do was to fall unconscious. He faced the pain and looked back at the laser capsule as it slowly entered the sharks den, then it disappeared - was masked - as more sharks swam out of the hole.

He had set the detonation sequence for thirty seconds and keeping a mental note he counted down the final seconds of the timer. All of sudden the implosion rocked the area and cascaded a deafening shockwave in every direction as a ring of energy impacted everything in its path. The shark's den imploded with hundreds of shark's victim to the powerful energy blast. And Luxen smiled, pleased that the plan was a success. Sharks swam towards their brethren and began devouring pieces of flesh and bathed in the blood. This gave G.I.Joe and those who survived from his Undertow unit time to escape the area. Falcon made a b-line for the surface and when he emerged took a gasping deep breath of fresh air.

Falcon smiled and turned to Luxen and said, "We did it, Drake, thanks to you". But Luxen was unconscious. Falcon removed the scuba mask and checked Luxen's pulse, but he couldn't feel anything. Drake's breath was very faint, too. "Drake, stay with me man, you can't die now." Falcon turned around and raced the water sled towards shore. G.I.Joe Medical Services were waiting for the company on shore when the diving crew arrived and Falcon carried Luxen over his shoulder and had help as he laid him down on a stretcher. Luxen was then carried into an ambulance and they raced to a hospital. Falcon went with him. 

Four hours later Luxen was rolled out of surgery.

Drake opened his eyes sometime later and wondered where he was. The last place he remembered being was underwater just as the shark ripped his back open. He looked around and found he was in a white room and lying in a bed. Sitting in a chair against the wall writing something down on a pad of paper was Falcon in a Green Beret uniform. Drake moaned as he suddenly felt shards of pain ripple through his body.

Falcon looked up and said, "Drake, you made it buddy, welcome back," smiling.

"I thought I'd wake up dead," Luxen said.

Falcon smirked. "Glad ya didn't," he said. "There's someone who wants to speak with you, Drake." Falcon stood on his feet and opened the door, and Drake's eyes widened as a tall man with brown hair, wearing a brown bomber jacket and green camouflage pants entered the room. "This is General Hawk, commander-in-chief of G.I.Joe." Falcon did the introductions for Drake, too.

"Are you here to arrest me, General Hawk?" Drake asked.

"Quite the opposite, soldier," General Hawk said with a friendly tone. "I'm here to commend you on your actions in saving my friends. From what I've heard, you showed real bravery out there considering the odds. And I've come to present you with a tentative offer. How would like become a G.I.Joe? We could really use a man of your ability in our fight against COBRA if you care to help?" Drake's eyes lit up with complete disbelief; he looked at Falcon. Falcon smiled. "I've reviewed you military record and I'm impressed. Your only fallout was joining COBRA. But I believe we can overlook this infracture since you single-handedly destroyed one of their weapons of mass destruction and put the lives of others over your own safety."

"I don't know what to say, General Hawk. I'm speechless." Luxen said. "I'm finished with COBRA. They believe I'm dead, so let's leave it that way."

"Good. Take some time with your decision, there's no rush. You took a beating out there. Get better."

"I will, and thank you sir." Luxen tried to salute, but lifting his arm gave him pain.

General Hawk saluted for him. "Your family has been notified and they're in transit," he said. "But I didn't tell them that you worked for COBRA; it's not my call to tell."

"Thank you sir. But before I decide anything, my family and I need to have a long talk. There's alotta of things I need to get out in the open. For two years now I've lived a lie and told them I've been working as a deep-sea diver on an oceanic vessel in Spain raising pieces of shipwrecks off the ocean floor, but no more lying. They don't deserve to be lied to anymore. I know I'm going to get a tongue lashing from my wife, but I don't care. I'll take what's coming to me."

"And that's what being a G.I.Joe is all about," General Hawk said smiling, "integrity."

General Hawk then said good-bye and left the room. Falcon went over to Drake's bedside and said, "Thanks for saving my life back there, Drake. I owe ya one."

"Nah, I owe you one for bringing me home after that shark torn up my back. Thought I was a goner."

"Then I suppose we're even."

Luxen laughed. "I guess we are. By the way, how'd the attack on the Cobra base go?"

"We destroyed it, and sent Cobra packing, but Cobra Commander escaped. Eventually we'll get that slippery snake and put him behind bars."

"I suppose I'll be interrogated for what I know about Cobra before I'm discharged from the hospital, right?"

"Nope," Falcon said. "General Hawk wiped the slate clean. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, your record as been expunged."

Drake Luxen leaned back in his pillow, thought about it, and then made a decision to tell Falcon everything he knew about COBRA's operations. It was the least Luxen could do for Falcon saving his life. Later he learned the information he provided helped defeat COBRA and banished Cobra Commander and his evil cohorts into eternal exile before G.I.Joe was disbanded in 1997.

THE END.


End file.
